How to Make a Gorgeous Paper Garland in Under 10 Minutes

Throwing a last minute party and need a some quick and festive decor? You can always turn to the paper garland. Whether we’re creating romantic bunting for Valentine’s Day, pennant banners for the holidays, or planning wedding decor, paper is the easiest way to decorate for any type of event.

For today’s installment of DIY Basics, we’ll turn a few pieces of card stock into a lovely banner, perfect for any season.

Materials:– card stock or construction paper

– thread

– scissors

– Tools: sewing machine

First, get your materials together. We used gold and blue paper with a bit of sparkle, but you can use pretty much any time of paper you can find. Magazine covers can work, paper bags, etc. Anything that is slightly thicker than standard copy paper or magazine pages.

Cut your paper into strips. Use scissors or a paper cutter. The strips should vary in size from 1 inch to 4 inches thick. The length on ours varied from 4 inches to 12 inches.

Now time to sew. Pull about a foot of thread out from your sewing machine – this will be the end of the garland you tie or tape onto the wall. Stitch your first piece of paper. After you’re done with one, let the sewing machine keep sewing for about 4 stitches or a quarter inch.

Then feed in your next piece of paper and repeat until you’re done! (Note: If you don’t have a sewing machine, you can also achieve a similar look by stapling pieces of paper to ribbon or thick twine.)

After your last piece of paper, stitch for a few more inches and then pull out about 12 inches of thread. This will help you hang your garland (like the first piece).

Set up your bar, hang the garland on the wall, and bring out the bubbly! To complement the garland, we also made a few drink stirrers with our handy 1-inch hole punch, lollipop sticks, and a dab of Elmer’s.

What your go-to projects for last minute decor? Share ideas with us in the comments below.

As Chief Creative Officer and Founding Partner at Brit + Co, Anjelika Temple brings her voracious consumption of all things creative and colorful to DIY projects, geeky gadgetry finds and more. When she's not DIY-ing her heart out, you'll find her throwing dinner parties with friends or adventuring with her husband David, their daughter Anokhi, and their silly dog Turkey.